Agile processes promote sustainable development.
The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

For the last few years I’ve been using an app called Time Out to make sure I take regular breaks. It runs in the background and throws a “micro break” about every ten minutes—just look away from the screen for ten seconds and rest your eyes—and a “regular break” about every hour or two, reminding you to get up and walk around for a few minutes. To be honest, the app gets a little annoying (especially when you’re pair-programming, collaborating with others, or recording screencasts), but its worth it. Whenever I stop using the app, eyestrain comes back after a day or two.

Here’s how I set up my Time Out:

Timer settings for the Normal break.

Appearance settings for the Normal break.

Timer settings for the Micro break.

Appearance settings for the Micro break.

Pro tips:

Set the “Micro Break” (every 10m) with yellow background, fade in immediately, last for 10s. (this is to remind you to look in the distance to rest your eyes). Disable all snooze buttons for the Micro Break.

Set the “Regular Break” (every 55m or 85m) with at red background, fade in immediately, last for ~4m. I like to set the frequency + duration to != 60m, so that my breaks go out of phase w/ the clock. Disable all snooze buttons except “postpone 5m”. Time Out is great, but it requires discipline. Once you start hitting ‘snooze’, you lose respect for your breaks and it’s all over—Time Out turns into an annoyance rather than an aid.

Our bodies were built for dodging saber-toothed tigers, not for working at a computer in a climate-controlled office. Download and set up Time Out; chances are good you’ve got many more years ahead of typing and using screens, and it’s important to take care of your body.

What tools do you use to stay healthy at work?

UPDATE: I just found a new pane in the Time Out preferences which allows you to specify apps which should never allow Time Out to launch a break. If you’ve ever been interrupted in the middle of recording a screencast, you’ll know why this is a lifesaver.

4 Comments

My friend Charlotte Chang introduced me to Time Out and pointed me to your blog for suggested settings. I found it quite useful while I was using it on Friday, although “distracting” — but I guess that is the point.

I wanted to look at your settings, but the screenshots are small and don’t show a zoomed view when I click on them. They just link back to this page. Is something wrong with some javascript somewhere? (I’m using Mac, Google Chrome)

May 6, 2013 at 9:13 am

Jonathan Berger says:

Sorry about that; I’ve re-jiggered the photos so the settings are easier to see. If you end up using Time Out, I’d love to hear what you think of it after a week or two.

May 7, 2013 at 8:32 am

Bill Ramsey says:

I’ve also found Time Out useful to keep me focused on what I really want to accomplish. Every 30 minutes, it pops up instantly, and I ask myself: “is this the most important thing I can be working on?”

It’s easy to get lost in the game of problem solving whack-a-mole, and Time Out reminds me to question if I’m even playing the right game.

Jonathan Berger is a designer, developer and technologist who has been active in the NYC technology scene since around 2005, helping to organize events like the Agile Experience Design Meetup, the Pivotal Labs Tech Talk series in NY, Startup Weekend, Barcamp, Fashioncamp, and IgniteNYC. He spends his days building software with Pivotal Labs and his nights and weekends working on Market Publique. Prior to that, he earned a Bachelors in Philosophy at Vassar College and a Masters in Media Studies at the New School(where he also spent quite a bit of time at Parson’s Design + Technology program). He has worked as a designer, developer, video editor, animator, and technology consultant for institutions as diverse as Eyebeam, MTV Networks, Yahoo!, Ogilvy, and the American Museum of Natural History.
He speaks about startups and technology at events like the Future of Web Design, O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 Expo, New York Tech Meetup, Fashion 2.0 Startup Showcase, Startup Weekend, North Brooklyn Breakfast Club, The Product Group, and others.
He makes it a point of honor to include Comic Sans in every design project.
Find him on twitter, github, flickr, etc. as @jonathanpberger.